Research interests

My work deals with the ways in which metaphor helps or hinders cross-cultural communication. I also enjoy looking at figurative language at the intersection of language, image, and sound, and more generally, how people make sense of everyday creativity. Here are some key publications (you can also check my other publications and books):

Advertising & branding

Pérez-Sobrino, Paula (2017) Multimodal Metaphor and Metonymy in Advertising. John Benjamins DOI

Pérez Sobrino, P., Littlemore, J., & Ford, S. (2021). Unpacking Creativity: The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press DOI

Creativity

Pérez-Sobrino, Paula; Semino, Elena; Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide; Koller, Veronika & Olza, Inés (2022). Acting like a hedgehog in times of pandemic: Metaphorical creativity in the #ReframeCovid collection. Metaphor and Symbol 37:2, 127-139. DOI

Hidalgo-Downing, L., & Pérez-Sobrino, P. (2022). Rest in space, Starman! Creative reframing of death metaphors on David Bowie’s mural in London. Discourse Studies, 24(5), 566-589 DOI

Cross-cultural communication

Littlemore, J., Bolognesi, M., Julich-Warpakowski, N., Leung, C., & Sobrino, P. (2023). Metaphor, Metonymy, the Body and the Environment: An Exploration of the Factors That Shape Emotion-Colour Associations and Their Variation across Cultures (Elements in Cognitive Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press DOI

Winter B, Pérez-Sobrino P, Brown L (2019) The sound of soft alcohol: Crossmodal associations between interjections and liquor. PLOS ONE 14(8): e0220449 DOI

Research methods

Pérez Sobrino, Paula and Ford, Samantha (2023)  What counts as a multimodal metaphor and metonymy? Evolution of inter-rater reliability across rounds of annotation. Language and Cognition, 1-29 DOI

Julich-Warpakowski, N., & Pérez Sobrino, P. (2023) (eds.) Current challenges in metaphor research. Special issue of Metaphor and the Social World 13:1. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company DOI

Music cognition

Pérez Sobrino, Paula (2018) Cognitive modeling and musical creativity. In: Csábi, Z. Expressive Minds and Artistic Creations: Studies in Cognitive Poetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 101-128 DOI

education & work

2023 - present Associate Professor in Modern Languages. Universidad de La Rioja

2019 - 2023   Lecturer in Modern Languages. Universidad de La Rioja

2017-2019     Lecturer in Applied Linguistics. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

2015 - 2017   Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow (MSCA-EF-2014-EF). European Multimodal Metaphor in Advertising. University of Birmingham

2011 - 2015  PhD in Modern Languages. University of La Rioja (Prize for Best Dissertation 2017)

2010-2011  MA in Secondary Teacher Training, Vocational Training and Languages. University of La Rioja

2009 -2010 MA in Advanced English Studies. University of Salamanca

Contact: paula.perezs@unirioja.es


Filologías Modernas (despacho 110)Facultad de Letras y de la EducaciónUniversidad de La Riojac/ San José de Calasanz, 3326006 Logroño (La Rioja)